Discord Update 3: Aftermath
Previous Update: The Battle for Noxus The Void Assault on Noxus: Aftermath by Montesque64 (edited by CupcakeTrap) “Rodger dodger, Ground Control.” Corki replaced the communication stone in its holder on his instrument panel, and raised his hand, gesticulating wildly. Around him, the Reconnaissance Operations Front-line Copters of the Screaming Yipsnakes sputtered and roared forward. The Daring Bombardier cackled gleefully as his squadron screamed out over the vast sea of voidlings surrounding the city of Noxus. It had been too long since he’d been able to lead them in open combat, since the League had put a stop to the constant warfare of the past. The elderly Yordle’s map fluttered against his dashboard. There were another two leagues for his squad to cover before they could drop their payloads. Dark, winged figures were beginning to rise from the dark mass below them, the aerial defenses of the void flying to meet them. From the skies around him, he heard the chatter of Gatling guns sighting in on the creatures, followed shortly by the shrieks of dying alien creatures as they plummeted back to earth. More and more creatures began to rise from the horde below, and soon it was all Corki and his squadmates could do to maintain their course against the rising swarm of fell creatures. To Corki’s left, Ridder Conk’s plane was brought down by clawed creatures breaking apart his wings. The young Yordle had time to arm the detonation charges on his plane before it impacted below, and the resulting explosion tore a gaping crater in the ranks of the void beneath. The squadron leader gritted his teeth and gave a brief salute to the brave Yordle who had given his life for the sake of all of Runeterra. “Mayday, Mayday!” Chimed his communication stone, and Corki looked at it in shock. The voice belonged to Crena Teckton, squadron commander of Heimerdinger’s Hellions, one of the other squadrons sent out to support the Yipsnakes. “We have contact. My squadron is nearly all down. Again, we have con…” As the communication stone went silent, Corki’s head whipped around to the patch of sky where the Hellions had been holding his flank. He saw a dark shape flitting through the air, leaping from copter to copter, each exploding in its wake. A flash of purple, glowing claws and bug-like wings brought a curse to the master aviator’s lips. No one had told him that Kha’Zix was in the Operational Zone. Looking to his map again, Corki made the call. They were at the outer edge of the area Kassadin had designated as the acceptable area, but if he pushed his Yordles any further, none of them would be coming back. He slammed his fist down onto a red button on his console, and red flares burst from his wingtips, followed shortly thereafter by a glowing purple orb which dropped from his bomb-bay doors. It was quickly swallowed up in the roiling chaos beneath him, and as he swung his copter around, followed shortly after by his remaining Yordles, he hoped to whatever powers might be listening that it was going to be enough. Caitlyn lowered her telescope and signaled the sentry beneath her on the tallest tower in Noxus. The sentry, in turn, ran a short way and signaled the next in the line. The signal spread down the tower, accompanied soon after by the crack of the Sheriff of Piltover’s rifle. Each shot shattered a Voidspawn skull. One by one, the demons scaling the city walls tumbled to the ground. At the base of the tower, the final sentry signaled Quinn and Valor before running off to join the fighting on the walls. The Demacian ranger tied a golden ribbon to her companion’s leg, and Valor went streaking off towards the High Palace of Noxus, where the only hope for Runeterra lay waiting. The Demacian eagle lighted on the window sill of the room which had served as the Alliance’s council chamber. There was the signal. In the center of the room, Kassadin held a stone so black it seemed to suck the light from the room around it, shrouding the Void Walker in shadows. Four mages surrounded him, four points in a square centered on the void-tainted mage. Kassadin braced himself and gave a nod to signal the start of the ritual. Swallowing nervously as he turned to her, Lux raised her staff and channeled as much of her magic as she could muster through it. A blinding column of light burst from it, knocking her backward slightly. Her eyes widened with concern. Surely Kassadin would be consumed by that much furious magic. However, as the glow faded from her eyes, she saw the last of the luminous magic being absorbed into the black stone. Kassadin turned to the next mage. The ritual had been powered by the Demacian mage’s power, but now it needed to be calmed and contained. The dark skinned woman who stood next to Lux opened her eyes, one of which glowed green, and the other purple, as she began to weave a lattice of magic over the sphere, one green thread for each purple, each overlaying one of the flairs of light which occasionally burst from the voidstone. As the mages worked their magic, the men and women of the Alliance fought on the walls, being steadily pushed back into Noxus proper from its surrounding walls. A surging wave of voidspawn broke their backward-staggering ranks. The Piltovian Hammerers and Musketeers fled to the flanks and watched the horde rush past. They had a clear path now into the city, and they charged straight for the council chamber housing Kassadin and the others. “DEMACIAAA!” The shout shook the stones of the city, and a golden wave broke against the flank of the void swarm from a side street. With great sweeping arcs of his spear, Jarvan IV, Crown Prince of Demacia, sent voidspawn flying, broken before him. On either side, Xin Zhao and Garen protected their liege lord, followed closely by a force of Demacian spears and halberdiers. As they surged forward, pushing the void spawn backwards through the broken gates of Noxus, they glimpsed a flash of light, followed by sinuous bands of green and purple energy bursting into the air in the distance. Garen said a short prayer for his sister in the citadel above, and turned his attention back to the job at hand, as the never ending pressure of the voidspawn once again began to push the Demacian forces backwards. Karma collapsed to one knee as the threads of her magic severed themselves from her hands, and she nodded at Kassadin. Her work was finished. The ritual spell now had both power and focus. Now it only needed purpose. For this, Kassadin turned to the final two mages. Swain brought his walking stick crashing to the stones between his feet, and with a great roar sent talons of magic shooting into the sphere, clutching at it, only to be absorbed into it. His cloak billowed in magical winds as the sphere began to exert a noticeable pull on those around it. The tower was nearly overrun, and Caitlyn was reduced to shooting as rapidly as possible to keep the soldiers below alive. She was beginning to miss, and knew it was only a matter of time before the brave men and women below were overrun. On the roofs above the melee, she glimpsed a harlequin figure and a lithe woman with red hair flashing in and out of sight, each trying to find the other’s blind side, each pushing their abilities to the utmost as Katarina and the Demonic Jester fought to keep their opponent clear of the forces below. Caitlyn’s heart leapt in her chest as a glowing blue field extended across the street below, followed by a white sphere of energy which grew and accelerated as it passed through the field, blowing a huge gap in the void’s lines. Jayce stormed through after it, his Lightning Field Generator sending bolts of lightning sizzling into the swarm. The Piltoverians swiftly rallied around him, and the flood of voidlings was momentarily stymied. “For Science!” Came a cry from below, and suddenly a swarm of Yordles, led by Heimerdinger himself, appeared in a sizzling flash behind Piltover’s lines, lobbing grenades and firing various uniquely destructive contraptions into the horde. The Revered Inventor scuttled about, setting up a defensive perimeter of turrets in the streets, as a heavily armored Yordle woman crashed into the melee in support of Jayce. Suddenly, purple threads began to appear, attached to each Voidspawn. It seemed to slow them down, and the threads trailed back behind the creatures into the distance, apparently converging at the point where the flairs and sinuous streams of magic still burst on the horizon. So far, so good, thought the Sherriff of Piltover wryly. Finally, Kassadin turned to the final mage. If the creature could be called such. With clinking of clockwork joints and eyes of blank steel, Orianna pirouetted and gracefully raised her hand, sending her Ball forward. The contraption seemed to merge with the sphere somehow, seeming to occupy the same space as the furiously pulsating voidstone, yet without being consumed by it. “Command: Shockwave.” On the walls of Noxus, Sions stared impassively, his axe dripping with black ichor, his unholy feet surrounded by mounds of voidspawn, uncaring of the gashes in his unliving flesh torn by their claws. On the roofs of the city, Katarina finally succeeded in driving Shaco from the field, one of her knives driven deep into his chest. In the dark alleys of the city, Talon moved like a shadow, dispatching any unwary voidlings he caught alone or in small groups. On the main roads of the city, Darius commanded the finest soldiers of Runeterra, the Noxian elites, holding fast against the unending tides of enemies. Each ready and willing to sell their lives dearly in defense of their fatherland. Each saw, as did the thousands of rank and file soldiers of the Grand Alliance, the unspeakably massive burst of magic energy on the horizon. Great pulses of dark magic flowed down the threads connected to each of the void creatures, and as each pulse reached each creature, it was dragged inexorably backwards. The force was irresistable, and the innumerable swarm of the void was drawn back further, out of the gates of the city, through the killing fields outside of the city, where millions of their kind had been killed by the ambushes and layered defenses organized by Swain and Heimerdinger, back towards the glowing purple orbs dropped by the brave pilots of the Screaming Yipsnakes. There, a rift into the void had appeared, calling like to like, an inexorable pull on the otherworldly creatures, sending them screaming back into the nothingness that had spawned them. Some, those who had grown powerful in Runeterra, and had acclimated to it, developed their own consciousness and mind, resisted the pull. Malzahar felt their resistance, and knew they were too few. With a snarl, he extended his mind to each of them. Cho’Gath, Kha’Zix, Kog’Maw, others who had joined themselves to the inevitable ultimate triumph of the Void. His message was simple. Today, we retreat. It is finished. Then, with a cry of inarticulate, frustrated rage, the Prophet of the Void disappeared in a flash of purple motes. Discord is the victor of this storyline. However, in the subsequent “Battle for Noxus” mini-storyline, Noxus and its allies narrowly defeated Discord. The Void now controls Icathia. Noxus is devastated, but endures. The next storyline begins with: Shon-Xan